2023-05-20 08:04:50
Never French president had set foot officially in the steppes of Mongolia. The country of the Golden Horde and Genghis Khan did not appear in the tricolor priorities. We have to believe that the strategic upheaval imposed by the war in Ukraine has changed the situation. Sunday, therefore, after the final G7 press conference in Hiroshima, where Ukraine will be on everyone’s lips, Emmanuel Macron will fly to Ulaanbaatar to have dinner there with President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, according to the Elysee.
“A special meaning”
This short-term visit will be an opportunity to forge political, economic and cultural ties for the Head of State. Apart from the official dinner, the French president will also visit the Genghis Khan museum, the great Mongol conqueror of the 13th century, who will lend part of his collection to the Nantes history museum for an exhibition scheduled for October.
He will leave for Paris at the end of the evening. “The fact that Mongolia is on the way back allows us to make this historic first by giving it a very special meaning,” it was explained in the entourage of President Macron. On the other hand, no passage in the steppe planned to pose on a famous horse of Przewalski.
The geopolitical issue
There is an important strategic issue in the new global geopolitical context. The French presidency mentioned a “very important issue” on the “geostrategic level”, which is part of Paris’ desire to “loosen the constraint exerted on Russia’s neighbors and open up to them the choice of their options “.
“It’s a way of showing France’s support for the Mongolian democratic model, of affirming that it is possible to follow this path in a region dominated by authoritarian regimes”, explains Antoine Maire, associate researcher at the Foundation for strategic research in Le Point magazine. “Mongolia is a landlocked country between Russia and China, but also a country that has a model of government that is liberal, that holds elections, that has experienced alternations, and that also seeks to diversify its partnerships to be more robust and able to deal under better conditions with its large Russian and Chinese neighbours”, still according to Elysian sources.
“Very important possibilities of cooperation”
At the bilateral level, France considers that there are “very significant possibilities for cooperation” since Mongolia, “90% dependent on coal for its electricity”, has a “problem” of “decarbonizing its economy”. And for that, Mongolia needs foreign investment. France is a player in the sector.
But France is targeting another even more strategic area. The French head of state is squinting at the country’s important mineral resources. Starting with uranium, because Mongolia has the largest reserves in Asia. France is already an important pawn in this politico-economic chess game thanks to the presence of Orano (ex-Areva) in the country for twenty-five years. “France supports the uranium mine project which must now go beyond the pilot project stage”, specified the Élysée to the Echoes.
Paris also hopes to give new impetus to other projects related to raw materials but also to rare earths. In terms of geology, the country would have significant reserves, as evidenced by the soil of Inner Mongolia in China. But “other studies are necessary”, also underlines the Elysée with the economic daily.
Rare earths are metals and metal compounds used in a large number of high-tech manufacturing processes, including “future” technologies: batteries, screens, mobile phones, low-energy light bulbs, hybrid vehicles, wind turbine rotors , or even missiles… “Mongolia also has its place in our strategy of diversifying European supplies in order to guarantee our energy sovereignty” adds the Élysée.
Overall, the visit “will aim to respond to Mongolia’s desire to diversify its partnerships and reduce its dependence on its Russian and Chinese neighbors, we learned from an Elysian source. “It will thus be a question of continuing to strengthen relations between France and Mongolia, also in terms of ecological transition, agriculture and agri-food, and civil security”. Currently, 86% of Mongolia’s total exports, all goods combined, go to China. A quasi-monopoly which arouses the interest of Beijing’s rivals.
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